Article: Agha Akbar reviews the current PCB’s performance
Agha Akbar24-May-2001My friend Khalid Butt is finding it increasingly difficult to defend the PCB’s much-sullied image these days in the face of wide media outrage. And that unfortunately is his job as PCB’s media manager. After the unending spate of defeats, he is full of protest and indignation. Not at the string of setbacks, but at hacks like me taking potshots at his boss and the organisation that he represents.Butt’s beef with this writer is the last piece one wrote, titled “Pakistan addicted to its losing ways”, which appeared on May 21. Butt says that my basic argument is flawed. To him the PCB’s performance should not be evaluated together with the national team’s. Rather, it should be looked at in terms of what other magnificent infrastructure the Board has put up or what fine academies they have created.This argument doesn’t wash, on a number of counts, the foremost being that it defies common logic. In military parlance, which the current PCB management should readily grasp, would mean that a major military defeat should not be blamed on the Head Quarters!And, conversely, if the Board should not be blamed for defeats why should everybody who is anybody in the PCB – from the Chairman, to chief selector, right down to the last brigadier, colonel, captain, lieutenant and the tea boy – wrangle for media credit in case of the odd victory. If you have forgotten, recall the gushing at the last good news they got – after the Auckland Test. The obverse side of basking in reflected glory is egg on the face in case of a setback. And those who choose to opt for limelight are condemned to face this situation whenever things go wrong.Anyway, this PCB defence, the only one they have been able to muster after months of head-scratching, has been accepted by some writers from the south of the country; most of them chose to remain nameless, and the one who didn’t was perhaps enamoured towards the idea due to a lucrative book sponsorship deal offered him. Those close to the powers-that-be divulge that the sum involved is likely to be in millions.Passing the buck in its entirety to the team, however, is an idea that did not cut much ice with the rest of the country. And the proof that the PCB’s position is considered untenable was that the opprobrium has been across the board, echoing in the editorials and other writings, in all the popular leading dailies, vernacular as well as English. One of them was titled, “Partners in Crime”, while others unequivocally asked for the sacking of the Board.And if the PCB’s position on the issue is as sound as they’d want us believe, why hasn’t a single credible voice been raised in support? That, of course, means leaving out those on the payroll, one way or the other. Frankly, even they are looking for cover most of the time.The men residing in Pakistan cricket’s ivory tower these days do not realise that the people’s fascination with the game is fast turning to disgust, and that’s why they are not getting many positive opinions. To be fair, in this the fault is not entirely set-up’s, but the fact is that people are sick of the shenanigans of players and administrators alike.It has also been ‘advised’ that one should not over-react, “not lose one’s balance at the Lord’s defeat”. Such arguments miss the whole point, and that is why they cannot befool men in the street any longer. Nobody is talking about an isolated defeat, there is a whole string of them: as many as 12 major debacles – a tournament or a series loss – in less than a year and a half.This reflects a pattern, and the current PCB set-up has singularly failed to break the cast.That when the General took over, the Pakistan team was rated as the second best in one-day cricket and was close to the top in the longer version of the game. In the previous year it had reached the World Cup Final and won the inaugural Asian Test championship. Only two years ago, it had attained the status of the top-ranked outfit in the world in Test cricket. That status was achieved without the high-fly advisors and new-fangled systems.Where are we today, despite the state of the art systems? Far from the top and hugging the bottom. Some achievement in only a year and a bit!That when hopes were high at the time the new command came in. The favourable argument was, if a serving general in a military government – can’t sort out the mess, then who can? But the General has obviously failed.More about it in the next column, looking at the last one year and a half encompassing the other so-called achievements – focussing on the human resource, the infrastructure, the systems and the academies. The PCB’s apologists do claim that they are without compare – more than what all the Boards combined achieved; well, then they surely deserve a dispassionate look and we will.Chronology of defeats under the present Board:
1999-2000: World Series Cup in Australia – Pakistan ends up second behind the hosts 1999-2000: At home against Sri Lanka – Pakistan was blanked out in one-day series 3-0 1999-2000: Pakistan loses the Test rubber 2-1 to Sri Lanka 1999-2000: In the West Indies, Pakistan loses the three-Test series 1-0 2000-01: Ends up third in a three-nation event in Sri Lanka, involving hosts and South Africa 2000: Loses a three-way one-day tournament at Singapore 2000: Loses in the semi-final against New Zealand of the ICC knock-out tournament at Nairobi 2000-01: Loses a Test series at home, its first in about four decades, against England 1-0 2000-01:Loses the one-day series in New Zealand 3-2 2000-01: The three-match Test series against the Black Caps is drawn 1-1 after Pakistan is beaten by an innings in the third Test 2000-01: Defeat in the final of the three-nation ARY Gold Cup against Sri Lanka 2001: First Test of the two-match rubber is lost at Lord’s by an innings and 9 runs – the first loss by an innings margin against England since 1978 and the second successive one by Pakistan….and successes:
1999-2000: Pakistan wins the three-nation one-day tournament in Sharjah in April 1999-2000: Pakistan wins the three-nation one-day tournament in the West Indies – their first victory in one-dayers in the Caribbean 1999-2000: Pakistan triumphs in the Asia Cup – its first continental trophy in seven attempts 2000-01: Pakistan wins the away Test series in Sri Lanka 2-0 2000-01: Pakistan beats England 2-1 in the one-day series at home